The motto of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is: “increasing access to higher education.” According to the official website of the Fund, “The Student Loan initiative is a program established by the Federal Government of Nigeria to break financial barriers in higher education”, with its specific benefits including “interest-free loans for tuition fees”, “equal access to higher education for all eligible candidates”, and “reduced financial stress on students and families.” NELFUND is therefore a programme designed to have far-reaching ripple effects; and is a critical index of good governance.

To ensure efficiency in the administration of the fund, NELFUND states that it is collaborating with 267 “esteemed institutions”. Ironically, it is here that the problem lies. Contrary to expectation, some of the “esteemed” tertiary institutions with which NELFUND has been collaborating have started to betray the trust that the nation has reposed in them.

The Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, consequent upon the agency’s investigation, disclosed: “We … heard of some schools that charge some fees, processing or so-called fees, for the students to access the funds. Something that [the schools] played no role in. … We see a lot of students complaining that it is only after they have made payment that they discover that NELFUND has paid for the tuition. And schools did not inform them. We had to relate to NELFUND, and we found out it was not news to NELFUND, and NELFUND was actually dealing with the issues already. As I speak, the anti-corruption agencies have been put on notice by NELFUND.”

The director-general also noted: “Now, students can track from application to disbursement by themselves; schools cannot do that anymore. It is so sad that any institution would be involved in this kind of thing. It is like sabotaging the citizens; let’s not even talk about the government. It is about sabotaging ourselves.”

In an even more detailed and more specific 29 April, 2025 account of the rot, titled “51 varsities, others embroiled in illegal deductions from students’ loans,” The Guardian (Nigeria) showed how the managements of no fewer than 51 universities and other tertiary institutions have been exploiting different categories of students financially. Some institutions have also been accused of inflating the tuition or institutional fees which they have been submitting to NELFUND for payment in respect of the loans’ beneficiaries’.

Where students have struggled to pay their tuition fees because of the fraudulent non-disclosure of prior NELFUND payment to the institutions, students have found getting a refund herculean, with some institutions reportedly ignoring students’ requests for such over-payments outright. It is further worrisome that banks, as institutions which have trust as an essential element of their contract with customers, are being implicated as collaborators in the financial travesty.

The institutions concerned have put themselves in the unedifying position in which the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has now pledged to undertake their own investigation of the different tertiary institutions to reveal whether they are implicated or not, and to determine the nature and extent of culpability. This has created the weird situation in which the tail would be wagging the dog.

The offending institutions have been described as swindling students-in-need. They have also been undermining the fundamental purpose of “increasing access to higher education” and “reducing financial stress on students and families.” The fraud has, in addition, given impetus to cynics of the students loan scheme who now have cause to sneer. Moreover, the financial heist amounts to sabotaging the present administration which has been holding up the beautiful students loan scheme as one of its early star achievements.

It is commendable that NOA has been remarkably eagle-eyed, NELFUND’s monitoring has been sufficiently efficient, and processes have started to be put in place to forestall the kind of financial improprieties that have been identified. More of these fraud-preventing measures and structures should be put in place.

Meanwhile, the institutions and individuals found culpable in the ongoing investigations should be handed stiff punishments. (The Nation Editorial)